Device for laying out tennis-grounds



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

v HQN. 'GOVELL. DEVICE FOR LAYING OUT TENNIS GROUNDS.

( No Model.)

No; 299,625. Patented June 3, 1.884.

' IIVVE/VTOI? (/7 M M W3? W/V/Z/aw/ZZ/ ATTORNEY NiiE STATES HARRY N.COVELL, OF GLENBROOK, CONNECTICUT.

DEVICE FOR LAYiNG OUT TENNIS-GROUNDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 299,625, dated June 3,1884.

Application filed April 7, 1884. (N model.)

Glenbrook, Fairfield county, State of Connecticut, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Devices for Laying Out Tennis- Grounds, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an apparatus for laying out and defining atennis-ground or. any other rectangular inclosure; and my inventionconsists, as will be more fully detailed hereinafter in connection withits illustration, of the combination of two bars arranged by theirconnection at the ends to produce a right angle or corner of a square,of spikes or pins on the under side of the device to secure it inposition, guideways centrally arranged at the outer ends of each of thebars, a slot made in the side of one of the connected bars near its endfor the insertion of a driving or laying-out pin adapted to be forcedinto the ground, and a handle attached to the upper part of the devicefor grasping the same.

Accompanying this specification,and forming a part of the same, are twoplates of drawings, containing five figures illustrating my invention,with the same designation of parts by letter-reference used in all ofthem.

Of these illustrations, Figure 1 shows a perspective of the apparatus.Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section taken on the line x of Fig. 1,the lower end of the laying-off pin being omitted. Fig. 8 shows thatpart of the laying-off pin omitted from Fig. 2. Fig. 4 represents a sideelevation of the mechanism with the angle formed by it turned toward thesight. Fig. 5 illustrates the apparatus as applied to lay out a square.

The several parts of the apparatus constituting my invention aredesignated by letterreference and their function is described asfollows:

The letters B designate two bars or sides of an angle forming the cornerof a square by their connection,- and the letters G indicate raisedguideways formed in and at the ends of the bars.

The letters S indicate spikes or pins formed on the under surface ofeach one of the bars or sides of the angle.

The letter S designates a slot or opening made in the connected bars ona line parallel to the sides of one of them, and P a layingoff pinadapted to enter said slotand to be forced into the ground thereat; andthe letter H designates a handle for grasping the device.

The apparatus is used in the following manner: The desired selection forthe location of the square to be laid out having been made,

the device is placed in what will be a corner a of the proposed square,and it is fixed in position by an applied pressure that will force thespikes or pins S in the ground thereat. The laying-off pin is thenforced into the ground through the inner end of the slot or opening Sand a laying-off string R passed around said pin, for attachmentthereto, the said pin being made with an encircling groove, 9, for thatpurpose. The string from where thus attached to the said pin is then runout therefrom through one of the guides G to such a distance as it isdesired to have form one side of the proposed square, and securedthereat by a pin or stake, with the string in such a position relativelyto the laying-01f pin in the corner of the angle and the guide in whichthe string is placed that the latter shall run straight therefrom, whichcan bedetermined by the position of the string within the guide as toits being parallel to the sides thereof. When one of the sides of theproposed square has thus been laid out, the adjoining rectilinear sideis extended in the same manner,

with the apparatus remaining fixed with the string passed through theother guide and extended therefrom, as before described. The twoadjoining sides of the proposed square having been thus defined, theapparatus is moved to the end of one of the two laid-off sides, and thesame operation is repeated, as

In an apparatus for laying out lawn-tennis Signed at Gienbrook,Fairfield county, 0011- I0 grounds, the combination of the bars B B,eonneetieut, this 22d day of March, 1884, and in neeted at their ends toform the corner of a the presence of the two witnesses whose namessquare, the guides G on the ends of each of were by them hereto written.the bars, the slot or opening S", arranged as T 7 shown, the laying-offpin 1?, and'the spikes S HARRY on the bottom of the bars, with the saidparts \Vitnesses: constructed to be used in the manner and for MARY E.COVELL, the purposes set forth. SANDS SEELY.

